“A Dog’s Purpose” Cast and Crew Respond to Criticism about Animal Mistreatment on Set

This Wednesday, TMZ posted a video showing the filming of an upcoming movie called “A Dog’s Purpose.” The movie is about a dog that gets reincarnated as different breeds throughout his lifetime. In the video TMZ shared, a scared German shepherd being forced to do a stunt can be seen on the set. The video shows a handler trying to put the dog into a pool of rushing water, even though the German shepherd is distressed and tries to stay on land. During the video, a voice in the background can be heard saying: “He wants to get away, just throw him in.”

The video that TMZ leaked got a lot of attention on the internet, and many people called for a boycott of the movie, including the animal rights organization PETA. The production company behind this movie, Amblin Entertainment, released a statement regarding the whole situation. “While we continue to review the circumstances shown in the edited footage, Amblin is confident that great care and concern was shown for the German Shepherd Hercules, as well as all of the other dogs featured throughout the production of the film. On the day of the shoot, Hercules did not want to perform the stunt portrayed on the tape so the Amblin production team did not proceed with filming that shot. Hercules is happy and healthy,” told the company in a statement to CNN.

The voice actor for the dogs in the movie, Josh Gad, was shocked when he saw the video, and noted that he has never even been to the set of the film. He said that he is a supporter of organizations like PETA and that he reached out to the studio and production team to seek explanation for the mistreatment of dogs on the set.

Meanwhile, Lasse Hallstrom, the director of the movie also noted that he was very disturbed by the video. “I did not witness these actions. We were all committed to providing a loving and safe environment for all the animals in the film. I have been promised that a thorough investigation into this situation is underway and that any wrongdoing will be reported and punished,” Lasse tweeted.